Our team of educational psychologists work mainly with children and young people aged 0-25 who have special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
Educational psychologists use psychology to help children and young people with the development of learning, communication, physical and sensory needs, and social and emotional skills needed for adulthood/independence.
Most children and young people with SEND will have their needs met through their nursery, school, or college. This could be from trained staff, or the staff might get advice from specialist teachers. However, sometimes an educational psychologist may be asked to help.
What we do and ways in which we work include:
Statutory services
The local authority will provide statutory services to schools, settings, and partner agencies. There will be no charge for these statutory services which will consist of:
The provision of psychological advice as part of the Education, Health, and Care Needs Assessment process upon the request of the local authority. This will happen when the Local Authority has agreed to initiate an Education, Health, and Care Needs Assessment.
Please note: In order to make a request for an Education, Health, and Care Needs Assessment you will need to submit a panel report from an Educational Psychologist.
Provision of advice for the annual review of pupils with an Education, Health, and Care Plan (EHCP) for whom a change in placement may be necessary and is requested by the local authority to determine appropriate placement.
Work with Looked After Children (LAC) via the LAC Educational Psychology Service. This includes direct work in schools for children who are looked after by Bolton.
Critical Incident Support Service.
Traded services
Schools, settings (including post 16 providers) and partner agencies have the opportunity of purchasing a wide range of additional packages of support for children, young people, and their families. These can either be chosen from the brochure or can be specifically designed to meet your individual requirements:
- Consultation — we meet with key adults involved in children and young people's education and care to discuss their needs and how best to help them.
- Direct work - this may include observation, talking to the child or young person to gather their views and/or one-to-one activities.
- Supporting staff development – this may include delivering training and providing advice around the delivery of interventions.
- Research and evaluation — we are sometimes involved in planning, carrying out and evaluating research.
Our team
Our team of educational psychologists are practitioner psychologists and are registered with the Health and Care Professionals Council (HCPC).
Within our team, we also have trainee and assistant educational psychologists who are supervised by experienced educational psychologists. They complete a range of duties, with appropriate supervision and support. Trainee educational psychologists are undertaking training to become educational psychologists and work here on placement. We also employ assistant educational psychologists. They have a psychology qualification and relevant experience of working with children and young people.
We also have a number of associate educational psychologists who are practitioner psychologists and who are registered with the HCPC. They support our team with our service delivery to schools.
Accessing the service
If you think advice from an educational psychologist might be of benefit, talk to your child or young person’s:
- key worker (in nursery)
- class teacher (in primary school)
- form tutor or head of year (in secondary school)
They will discuss your concerns with you and may also talk to the special educational needs co-ordinator (SENCO), who you can also ask to speak with.
If you are a young person and you think you need extra help, you should speak to a teacher or the SENCO.
The SENCO may request educational psychology involvement.
